Businessmirror August 21, 2018

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Tuesday, August 21, 2018 Vol. 13 No. 311

7-month BoP deficit widens to $3.712B T

By Bianca Cuaresma

@BcuaresmaBM

HE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Monday reported a $455-million balance of payments (BoP) deficit at the start of the year’s second half, an improvement from June.

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6% GDP growth is not bad at all Manny B. Villar

THE ENTREPRENEUR

M

any were disappointed that the Philippines appeared to have stepped on the brakes after the economy grew at a slower pace of 6 percent in the second quarter of 2018, from 6.6 percent in the first quarter.

Some economists and stock-market investors were quick to surmise that the economy was slowing down. I disagree. The country’s economic fundamentals, as I have written in this column before, remain solid. The 6-percent gross domestic product growth in the second quarter is not bad at all. It still made the Philippines one of the best-performing economies in Asia, next to Vietnam’s 6.8-percent growth and China’s 6.7 percent.

See “BOP,” A2

Continued on A6

Options: Rehab Naia, develop Subic and Clark Borrowings

Medal Tally As of 8 p.m.

By Elijah Felice E. Rosales @alyasjah

Country

However, the figure for January to July, at $3.712 billion, was more than double the $1.38-billion gap for the same seven-month period in 2017, and already more than twice the cumulative deficit of $1.5 billion for 2018 that the Central Bank projected earlier.

The $455-million deficit makes July the third best-performing month for the year in terms of the BoP—or the summary of the economy’s transactions with the rest of the world. The July deficit was an improvement from the $1.18-billion deficit seen in the previous month, and from the $678-million deficit seen in the same month last year.

2016 ejap journalism awards

& Butch Fernandez

G S B Total

1 China

13 7

7

27

2 Japan

6

8

6

20

3 Indonesia

4

2

2

8

4 Korea

3

8

8

19

5 ChineseTaipei

3

1

4

8

6 Iran

2

2

2

6

7 DPR Korea

2

1

0

3

8 Uzbekistan

1

2

3

6

9 India

1

2

1

4

10 Thailand

1

1

4

6

11 Kazakhstan

1

1

3

5

12 Mongolia

1

0

2

3

13 Jordan

1

0

0

1

14 Vietnam

0

1

3

4

15 HongKong,China

0

1

2

3

15 Lebanon

0

1

2

3

17 Kyrgyzstan

0

1

0

1

18 Philippines

0

0

3

3

19 Malaysia

0

0

1

1

B

@butchfBM

USINESS executives on Monday called on authorities to give the immediate go-ahead to the private sector-led rehabilitation of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia), amid the continuing blame game for the 36-hour paralysis of the premier airport as a disabled foreign plane blocked the runway on Friday.

The Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) told the government to decide and act fast in maintaining the efficiency and competitiveness of the country’s premier gateway. It said the best card on hand is to approve the private-sector initiative to modernize the Naia, even while developing key airports outside the capital region, such as Clark airport in Pampanga.

A separate pitch for also putting back in harness the Subic

Bay International Airport (SBIA), which in 1995 was successfully used to receive 747s diverted from the Naia by a similar plane mishap, was made by Sen. Richard Gordon, who was then the head of the agency in charge of developing the sprawling former US naval base in Subic.

At the same time, MAP argued there is no need to close Naia in favor of Clark. Citing cases in other countries, MAP said it will be useful to keep two major airports operating at the same time: one in the capital, the other in a nearby province.

“A city airport, such as the Naia, has the great advantage of convenient access, besides providing support to the local economy. Its benefits should not be neglected. Many metropolitan cities in the world recognize this reality,” the group explained.

Agatha Chrystensen Wong bucks a recurring tendinitis and a battered right knee to settle for the bronze—the country’s third medal—in wushu’s women’s taijijian and taijiquan all-around competition in the 2018 Asian Games on Monday in Jakarta. Nonie Reyes/Canon 6D MKII

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER BRONZE »Story on C3

“We urge the government to fast-track the approval of the private-sector upgrade of the Naia, particularly airside and landside improvements, based on value-formoney principles. While physical improvements are slated, air por t

management, including maintenance and upkeep, must be raised to world standards,” MAP said in a statement.

36-hour fiasco

The group’s comment came in the wake of a travel fiasco that hit the Manila transport facility. Over the weekend thousands of passengers got stranded at the Naia after it took authorities 36 hours to remove a disabled B737 of Xiamen Airlines from an international runway.

Before anyone could raise it, however, MAP advised against shutting down the Naia, amid calls to develop alternatives such as Clark International Airport. It argued its immediate development “appears to be the most cost-effective and fastest solution to the severe congestion currently plaguing the Manila airport.”

On top of this, the group recommended linking the Naia with Clark as a way to divert to the latter some of the air traffic from the former.

A railway line between the two had long been proposed.

“The MAP urges the adoption of an airport complementation strategy whereby the existing Naia See “Rehab,” A2

in June push 6-month total to P460.86B

By Rea Cu

@ReaCuBM

T

HE national government has reported total gross borrowings of P159.982 billion for June this year, pushing the total gross borrowings of the government for the first half of the year to P460.86 billion. This represented an 8.8-percent contraction compared to the P505.76 billion made in the same six-month period for 2017, Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) data showed.

The June total gross borrowing of P159.982 billion was higher by 202.1 percent compared to the P52.955 billion made in June 2017.

Broken down, external gross borrowings for the first half of the year comprised P155.823 billion and domestic gross borrowings, P305.307 billion.

The borrowings made offshore for the period rose by 11.9 percent over last year’s P139.209 billion, while borrowings from onshore lenders contracted by 16.7 percent compared to last year’s P366.551 billion.

For June alone, external borrowings reached P5.394 billion, increasing by 35.2 percent from the recorded P3.987 billion in June 2017; domestic gross borrowings reached P154.588 billion, rising by 215.6 percent from last year’s P48.968 billion.

Continued on A8

PESO exchange rates n US 53.4140

n japan 0.4830 n UK 68.0922 n HK 6.8048 n CHINA 7.7564 n singapore 38.9542 n australia 39.0723 n EU 61.1056 n SAUDI arabia 14.2426

Source: BSP (20 August 2018 )

News

BusinessMirror

A2 Tuesday, August 21, 2018

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Palace refutes ‘Duterte in coma’ talk by Joma

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ALACAÑANG on Monday debunked talk spread at the weekend by Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria Sison that President Duterte is in coma, and urged him to stop wishing the Chief Executive ill.

On his Facebook account, Sison claimed sources have told him that there was a “darkness” in Duterte’s face during the national convention of fraternity Lex Talionis Fraternitas of the San Beda Law School last Saturday (August 18).

Sison said the President was in coma since Sunday night, although the report is still being verified.

Under the Constitution, the public should be informed of the President’s state of health.

Presidential Spokesman Harry L. Roque Jr. shrugged off Sison’s remark, stressing that Duterte

showed up in events, and that the communist leader should not make comments about the President’s health since he has been in self-exile in the Netherlands since 1987 and is “not a doctor.”

“Contrary to what Joma Sison said, the President is fine and well in Davao participating in Kadayawan [festival]. He will have a public appearance tomorrow [Tuesday] with the League of Cities in Cebu City,” Roque said in a Palace briefing.

“As usual, Joma Sison does not know what he talks about. How will

he know about the state of health of the President when he is far away in the Netherlands?” he added.

Roque said perhaps during the event, Duterte was simply pictured without wearing face powder.

“Maybe he’s not wearing powder. The President normally wears powder. Maybe it was just a photo taken of him without powder. I don’t see anything extraordinarily different from the President’s face,” Roque said.

“Sison is a revolutionary and not a doctor. Let’s not listen to him as far as medical condition is concerned,” he added.

Here to stay

Roque also appealed to Sison, as well as other critics of the President, to stop wishing Duterte ill, warning that attributing a disease to a person could be libelous.

“That’s always wishful thinking on his [Sison’s] part. But the President is here to stay. I don’t know if he can say the same thing about

himself and about his movement,” Roque said.

“Sasabihin ko lang po doon sa mga kritiko ni Presidente [I just want to address the President’s critics], stop wishing him ill as far as his health is concerned. Every time you wish him ill, lalong lumalakas [he gets stronger],” he added.

Asked if the Palace would release Duterte’s medical records to put the rumors to rest, Roque stressed that the President’s public appearances were enough proof that he is in good health.

“Every time he appears in public, we’re debunking reports that he’s in coma so why do you need a document to show that he’s in perfectly good health? Tomorrow, he will be there [at the League of Cities event] and that’s proof that he’s not in coma,” Roque said.

Roque insisted that there was no need to make public the President’s health records because “there’s no information that the President is sick.”

Briones orders probe of torching of students’ bags

E

DUCATION Secretary Leonor M. Briones has ordered the Department of Education’s Region 5 office to immediately conduct a thorough investigation of the torching, allegedly on orders of a school owner in Libmanan, Camarines Sur, of the bags of senior highschool students who failed to comply with the school’s no-bag policy for the day.

Briones said that they are well aware of the incident at Bicol Central Academy (BCA) in Libmanan town.

The initial report submitted by Regional Director Gilbert Sadsad to Briones confirmed partial details of the incident.

Sadsad visited the school on Monday (August 20), along with guidance counselors who will provide psycho-

BOP. . .

Continued from A1

However, the country’s BoP performance in July brought the economy to its seventh consecutive month of BoP deficit, meaning the country is losing more dollars than it is earning for the entire year.

The BSP blamed the deficit on the payments made by the national government (NG) for its maturing foreign-exchange obligations and

Rehab. . .

Continued from A1

and Clark international airports are developed and operated as an integrated system with the two airports complementing each other, ideally with an express rail link in place. Under this dual airport system, the Naia should be upgraded expeditiously, preferably undertaken by the private sector, including a possible close-in parallel runway for emergencies, such as the recent closure of the main runway,” MAP said.

“The upgrade should realize the optimal safe capacity of the Naia. The Clark International Airport should be expanded to relieve the current demand pressure on the Naia and, more important, meet future demand growth,” it added.

Other countries

“We strongly object to the closing of the Naia, which we consider as a very drastic and counterproductive move.

The Naia is a strategically located air gateway supported by a road system already in place and with proximately located rail and future subway lines to serve the needs of air travelers in Mega Manila and southern Luzon,” the group declared.

In citing other countries where two or more premier airports are maintained, MAP pointed out: “Their old city airports, instead of being phased out as previously intended in favor of newer large-capacity airports in the suburbs, are being upgraded. For example, Tokyo Haneda is being expanded to supplement

social first aid to the affected students.

While the school administrator of BCA called the Schools Division Superintendent (SDS) of Camarines Sur to explain the incident last August 18, a written response, which the education chief demanded, has yet to be submitted.

Briones noted that if the school administrator’s accountability for the incident is established, the DepEd has regulatory tools for private schools at its disposal: a possible suspension or revocation of the school’s permit to operate; or disqualification of the school to participate in the Education Service Contracting and Senior High School Voucher Program; or nonissuance of favorable recommendation for tax exemption, like import duties.

While the DepEd’s Child Protection

Policy requires a complaint for child abuse or violence to be filed with the school head of private schools, parents of the affected students are advised to file complaints or administrative charges against the school administrator with the proper authorities.

The DepEd further recommended that the school board advise the school administrator to go on leave—to pave the way for an impartial investigation and to allay the students’ fear of reprisal.

“The department is committed to the full and strengthened implementation of the Child Protection Policy, and to ensuring that learners are in a school environment that does not make light of their rights, safety and dignity,” Briones said.

She assured the parents that the DepEd wants an investigation to be ”just and fair,” adding that, “we will not hesitate to impose the necessary sanctions on those who are proven to have violated the said policy.”

A tweet of a certain Earl Vincent dated August 17 said the “head” of his alma mater, BCA, ordered the destruction of the students’ bags that contain valuable items, such as gadgets like mobile phones and laptops.

The no-bag policy, according to Earl Vincent, was part of a rule implemented for a school event that day called “Tasumaki day,” where some high-school students were asked to fill in for teachers who were having a conference at the time. Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

foreign-exchange operations of the BSP. The Central Bank said that the deficit could have been larger, if not partially offset by net foreign currency deposits of the NG and income from the BSP’s investments abroad during the month. Foreign-exchange operations were also earlier blamed for the falling gross international reserves (GIR) of the country. The BSP earlier vowed to keep its presence in the foreign exchange market to smoothen out any volatilities that may be detrimental to the economy.

On Monday the local currency still traded

in the 53 territory, closing at 53.38 to a dollar from the 53.425 to a dollar close on Friday.

In the same month last year, BSP data showed the peso averaged trade at 50.875 to a dollar.

The BSP also blamed the higher seven-month BoP deficit of the country on the widening merchandise trade deficit for the first half of the year that was brought about by the sustained rise in imports of raw materials and capital goods to support domestic economic expansion.

The BSP earlier announced that it was

expecting the BoP to incur a cumulative deficit of $1.5 billion for 2018.

The BSP said the reported BoP position is consistent with the final GIR level of $76.72 billion as of end-July 2018. At this level, the GIR represents more than ample liquidity buffer and is equivalent to 7.4 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income. It is also equivalent to 6.1 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 4.1 times based on residual maturity, the BSP said.

Narita; Shanghai has its [Hongqiao] in addition to Pudong; London City airport at the Canary Wharf; Reagan airport in Washington; La Guardia in New York City; [and] even Bangkok is keeping Don Muang with Suvarnabhumi,” it added.

“The Naia and Clark require only upgrades while a new airport complex, from the ground up, will require an exhaustive study and a well-considered approach as seen in projects of such nature abroad.

In particular, aside from its financial viability, a credible environmental impact assessment must be made,” MAP said.

airport authorities needed to remove the stalled aircraft from the runway.

“We require two airports as our main international gateways. The Naia can serve South Metro Manila and Southern Luzon to Bicol, and Clark can address the needs of passengers from North Metro Manila and northern Philippines. Both hubs may share handling of travel and logistics flow to the Visayas and Mindanao,” Pimentel noted.

The underutilized airport in the former US military base at Clark has an area of 2,367 hectares, compared to theNaia’s 700 hectares. With its single runway, flight delays averaging to 45 minutes are a daily occurrence at the Naia aside from traffic jams to and from the airport.

Pimentel said that Clark could eventually service “flight transfers of international passengers, such as our OFWs, who need to go home to their families in the Visayas and Mindanao.”

“If you’re going to the province anyway via a connecting flight and you don’t need to stay in Manila, Clark International could be a better transfer point. Proposals such as these can work and should be tried,” Pimenel said.

“An integrated transport system is needed to fully realize Clark’s potential. We require a convenient, high speed rail network from Pampanga to Manila, as well as more flyovers and wider Nlex lanes. At present, P2P buses are not enough to give the speed and comfort of a world-class hub,” said Pimentel.

Pimentel pointed out that a low-

cost international carrier has already chosen Clark as its center of operations. Domestic flag carrier Philippine Airlines has, likewise, committed to boost its operations in Clark, as well as in Cebu and Davao.

‘Decongest Naia, develop Clark’

Also on Monday, Sen. Aquilino “Koko” L. Pimentel III renewed his two-year call to “go full blast” with the development of other air transport hubs, notably the Clark International Airport, where some of the flights were diverted in the wake of Friday’s Naia runway blockage.

“We can’t dillydally anymore. I made the same call in 2016. Let’s not wait for another airplane incident, which hassled thousands of passengers, to realize there should be an urgent and comprehensive government plan to decongest the Naia,” Pimentel said in a statement.

A Xiamen Airlines passenger plane slid off a Naia runway during a heavy downpour late Thursday night, August 16. All 157 passengers and eight flight crew were safely removed from the aircraft. The incident, however, led to flight delays and cancellations for two consecutive days because

Why not Subic?

This developed as Sen. Richard J. Gordon, Blue Ribbon panel chairman, said the Naia incident drove home the need to fast-track the reopening of the Subic Bay airport.

“If the SBIA was already operational, flights could have been diverted to both SBIA and Clark International Airport which would have mitigated the effects of the closure of Naia’s main runway last August 17,” Gordon said on Monday.

A former secretary of tourism, Gordon stressed that airports are “the country’s doorway to tourism, trade and investment.”

“Thus, when flights are delayed or canceled, it incurs cost, not only to passengers who are stressed and inconvenienced because they miss their work, classes or other appointments, but also to the airlines and companies doing trade and commerce,” he added.

Gordon recounted a similar incident in December 1995, when he was chairman of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), and a China Airlines jumbo jet bound for Taiwan was ditched in the Naia runway and international flights had to be diverted to the then newly opened SBIA. “During the time, I was having lunch with the then Hong Kong Gov. Chris Patten, who was visiting Subic. SBMA

“I will ask but the President already said that he was already given a clean bill of health. So that’s actually making public the results of his medical tests,” Roque said.

“He’s healthy. I talked to former Secretary Vit[aliano] Aguirre who was at the fair, he was fine.

He stayed till 12. He was in high spirits. He enjoyed the company of his [fraternity brothers] in Lex Talionis,” he added.

Roque, however, said Duterte has complained about his migraine in public but “that’s about it.” Duterte earlier said he suffered from back aches he acquired from a spinal injury.

Robust health

Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador S. Panelo, for his part, described Sison’s remark as “absolutely false.”

“Perhaps that is the wish of Joma Sison, hence, when he is fed with the wrong information on PRRD’s

health he easily believes in it. Unlike Joma Sison, the President is in robust health,” Panelo said.

“I wish him good health that he may live long enough to see the dawn of peace that has remained elusive between the communist insurgents and the Armed Forces,” he added.

Roque, meanwhile, said Duterte is still open to peace talks with the CPP as long as they were held in the Philippines and conditions were met.

“Hindi ko po sinasara ang pinto pero habang nagkakaroon ng mga guni-guning ganyan si Joma Sison, napakahirap naman makipag-usap sa kanya [I’m not closing the door, but while he makes hallucinations like that, it’s difficult to talk to him],” Roque said.

On July 22 Duterte underwent his routine medical checkup at Cardinal Santos Hospital, a day before he delivered his third State of the Nation Address where he was reported to be “in good health.” PNA

Nueva Ecija raid yields P200M worth of fake cigarettes, arrest of 17 Chinese

By Rea Cu

@ReaCuBM

C

ustoms and police operatives arrested 17 Chinese who were caught manufacturing fake cigarettes worth P200 million inside a warehouse in Nueva Ecija over the weekend.

The Bureau of Customs (BOC) reported the foreigners were arrested during an inspection conducted by agents of the Customs’ Enforcement and Security Services (ESS) on Valmonte Street in Barangay Pambuan, Gapan City, over the weekend.

Also intercepted were fake cigarettes of assorted brands, six cigarette-making machines, cigarette raw materials and fake Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) tax stamps stacked inside three boxes.

The raid stemmed from a directive issued by Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña to inspect a warehouse owned by a Chinese suspected to be storing fake cigarettes and cigarettemaking machines.

“It was subjected to a three-week surveillance by our Customs police following a tip from a reliable source that counterfeit

was hosting a luncheon at the old Officers Club. As we could see the Subic Airport from across the bay, he asked me if Boeing 747s could land there, I said of course, as the former airport used to land C-5 military aircraft. Then suddenly, I was surprised to see an actual Boeing 747 land at the airport and a few minutes later, followed with more 747s. I suddenly thought it was my lucky day. I was later informed that the Naia was closed and was diverting flights to Subic.”

Gordon recalled that despite “the short notice, I immediately put together hundreds of volunteers and staff to the airport. They helped unload 1,490 passengers, including their baggage, from four 747 jumbo jets [Singapore Airlines from Taiwan and Singapore; Qatar Airlines from Bangkok] pending transfer and departure. We worked late into the night to take care of and secure the stranded passengers.”

It is time, he said, to complete the rehabilitation of the SBIA to enable it to return to full operation by the second quarter of 2019, calling on the Department of Budget and Management to facilitate the bidding for airport equipment “as soon as possible.”

The Naia runway mess last Friday forced domestic airlines to cancel and divert dozens of flights, forcing tens of thousands of passengers to wait in uncertainty. Flag carrier Philippine Airlines had to cancel 68 trips and divert 21 flights, while budget carrier Cebu Pacific reported 151 flights were affected, according to a previous report.

cigarettes are [being] manufactured inside the warehouse,” Lapeña said.

Nabbed inside the warehouse were 16 males and one female, from Hu Bei, Fu Jian, An Hui and Xi An, China. They are now under police custody for violating Republic Act 8293, or the Intellectual Property Code.

“We are still conducting follow-up investigation to confirm the identities of the suspects and the origin of the raw materials and cigarette-making machines,” Lapeña said, adding the fake cigarettes and tax stamps will be seized in favor of the government.

“Aside from the ESS, the operation was coordinated with the elements of the Gapan PNP, Office of the City Mayor, and a product specialist from the Japan Tobacco Industry,” he added.

Earlier, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III ordered both the BOC and BIR to intensify its anti-smuggling campaign against the proliferation of fake cigarettes and cigarette-making machines.

“These operations are in response to the call of the President and Finance Secretary Dominguez to intensify the anti-smuggling campaign,” he added.

Poe panel probe

The airport paralysis will now be investigated by lawmakers.

Sen. Grace Poe pressed on Monday for a “full-blown” probe into the system breakdown that paralyzed operations at the Naia.

Senate Resolution 852 filed by Poe Monday directs the Senate Committee on Public Services, which she chairs, to “conduct a full-blown investigation, in aid of legislation, anent the airport, aeronautical and non-aeronautical, and aviation authority’s apparent and seeming broken systems of regulations as can be gleaned from the recent runway cataclysm-mishap involving Xiamen Airline, which led to airport paralysis and affected thousands of passengers and substantial flight cancellations anathema to rendering basic efficient public services.”

Poe’s resolution mandates a review of “airport operations and management, assessing tourism, economic and investment impacts, and protecting the interests of passengers and the country as a whole.”

Senate President Vicente C. Sotto III, when asked to clarify, said Poe may need to wait until August 28 resumption of sessions for the required plenary referral of her Resolution 852 before the Public Services panel which she chairs can start hearings.

“Yes. Only the Blue Ribbon Committee can conduct a hearing without a resolution or referral. Motu propio,” Sotto told the BusinessMirror, citing Senate Rules.

With a report by Joey Pavia

News BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Tuesday, August 21, 2018 A3

Groups slam arrest of 3 lawyers in Makati drug den raid

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By Joel R. San Juan @jrsanjuan1573 & Rene Acosta @reneacostaBM

HE president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) has warned that the warrantless arrest and the subsequent filing of criminal charges by police authorities against three lawyers monitoring a police raid on their client’s establishment suspected of being a drug den would send a “chilling effect” on the lawyers’ performance of their duty to ensure that the constitutionally guaranteed rights of an accused are respected.

IBP President Abdiel Dan Elijah Fajardo told the Businessmirror that the filing of constructive possession of illegal drugs against lawyers Jan Vincent Sambrano Soliven, Lenie Rocel Elmido Rocha and Romulo Bernard Bustamante Alarkon was merely to justify their illegal detention and to give policemen the basis for holding them longer under custody.

‘Steer clear’

IN Makati City, meanwhile, Mayor Abby Binay has warned drug dealers and their clients to steer clear of the city, as the city government is determined to put them behind bars, and urged the Makati police to pursue the charges filed against 31 employees of a bar at Barangay Poblacion arrested during an anti-illegal drugs operation last August 11.

“We are determined to banish the illegal-drug trade from our communities, especially in establishments like bars where drug dealing can easily become part of the services offered

to clients because of unscrupulous business owners,” the mayor said in a news statement issued on Monday.

The mayor noted that, out of the 31 suspects arrested at Time Bar along Makati Avenue during the said operation, only two turned out to be residents of Makati City. The rest of them, including the bar manager, are nonresidents with residential addresses in the cities of Pasay, Quezon, Taguig, Las Piñas, Parañaque, Caloocan, Pasig, Manila, and in the provinces of Cavite and Rizal.

No warrantless arrest

Fajardo, in a news statement issued over the weekend, added: “Laws of nations accord special treatment to lawyers because they perform a unique role in the administration of justice. A lawyer who is subjected to intimidation or threats may not be an effective advocate of his client’s cause, resulting in miscarriage of justice.”

“If the police are allowed to ef-

fect warrantless arrests against lawyers upon their sole and exclusive determination of the elements of obstruction of justice as a crime, then we will see fewer lawyers responding to their clients’ pleas for assistance,” the IBP head added.

Earlier the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) denounced the warrantless arrest of the three lawyers, saying that it “personifies the government’s arrogance, ignorance and disregard of law.”

“It demonstrates that the socalled ‘war on drugs’ is really a war against the law,” FLAG Chairman Jose Manuel Diokno said.

The National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) also defended the three lawyers, saying that they were merely performing their professional duties during the police search.

“When the police arrogantly act as judge, jury and executioner, and with brazen impunity and boorishness at that, then a breakdown in law and a start-up in disorder reigns.

Then the failing bloody ‘war on drugs’ becomes a drugged war. And we are all none the safer,” NUPL President lawyer Edre Olalia said.

Their arrest stemmed from a search warrant issued by the Regional Trial Court in Makati City on the registered owners and managers of Time Bar along Makati Avenue in Makati City.

The warrant was served by the police last Thursday and the raid yielded a number of drugs, including ecstacy and some sachets of cocaine and other party drugs amounting to more than P1 million.

The three lawyers arrived at the establishment during the raid to represent one of the owners of the establishments and took notes and photos of the search.

The police claimed that the lawyers were trying to intimidate their team implementing the search warrant, which resulted in a verbal confrontation and eventually the

arrest of the lawyers for alleged obstructive of justice.

However, when the police officially filed a complaint before the Makati City Prosecutor’s Office against the lawyers, it identified their other supposed offenses, such as resistance and disobedience, violation of an ordinance on crossing police lines and constructive possession of illegal drugs.

No mercy

National Police (PNP) chief Director General Oscar D. Albayalde revealed on Monday that the number of high value targets(HVTs)listed on its Double Barrel antidrug campaign has slightly increased.

“The list of high-value targets as of August 15, 2018, based on new information and continuing validation has increased to 9,972, from 9,866 listed in June 30, 2018,” the PNP chief said at a news briefing.

The PNP is carrying a combination of two operational campaigns in its intensified operations against illegal drugs, and these are the Double Barrel and Oplan Tokhang.

Double Barrel is aimed against big-time operators, protectors and peddlers of illegal drugs, while Tokhang is directed against street pushers and users of illegal drugs.

Albayalde said that out of the 9,972 HVTs, a total of 4,959 bigtime drug suspects have already surrendered and are now under monitoring and evaluation, while 2,825 others or 28.32 percent were arrested and charged as of August 15.

He said that only 258 HVT personalities or about 2.58 percent have died in police operations.

On the other hand, at least 654 HVTs can no longer be located in their last known addresses and areas of operation, while 322 other HVT personalities had become victims of “homicide cases under investigation.”

How can young people fight corruption? that are being set up with various local government units throughout the country, as a result of the Integrity for Jobs project, financially supported by the European Commission and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

2. Count supplies

By Henry J. Schumacher

O

N International Youth Day, we celebrate youth around the globe and their power to help shape a fairer and more just world.

Many young people are fighting corruption and making a big difference. And we celebrate all of you.

For those who are interested in tackling corruption, but don’t know where to start, here are some ideas from Transparency International’s youth anti-corruption tool kit.

1. Follow the money

Gov ernments have vast sums of public money to spend and this can pose a serious corruption risk. By keeping tabs on government expenditure, you can help shed light on how Philippine taxes are being spent and expose any abuses. You can also join the Integrity Circles

Schools receive lots of supplies from the government, like textbooks, lab equipment or other classroom necessities. It’s not rocket science to keep track of this. It just takes commitment and transparency. Ask to see how many Bunsen burners are supposed to be in the biology labs and if the numbers don’t add up—ask what’s happened.

3. Tech solutions

IF you’re tech-savvy, you can help communities document cases of corruption by developing reporting platforms on the Web or through mobile apps. Social media, in particular, is an effective way to address corruption in real time.

6. Youth groups

Youth groups share their disapproval of corruption and are found at local and national levels. Different groups have different goals, but they have one thing in common: A willingness to talk openly about their opposition to corruption and raise awareness about its adverse effects on society. These groups can be formed to take part in a one-off event, around a single issue—stopping bribery for grades in school, for example—or for longer-term campaigns.

7. Protests

Protest events are a way for citizens and groups to come together in public to show large scale support for or opposition to a particular issue. Protests, marches, demonstrations and rallies can be a powerful tool for anti-corruption campaigners.

8. Petitions

Comics are a powerful way of raising awareness about anti-corruption. Through a combination of images and text, comics can also help spark debate—and they are easy to produce. All you need is a pen and paper.

A petition is a collection of signatures from people supporting your cause. That petition is then presented to decision-makers­— like government or education officials—that have the power to create the change you want. We have a good example at the Integrity Initiative—our Integrity Pledge for Organizations and for Individuals.

5. Sports

9. Election pledges

4. Comics and cartoons

What’s your favorite sport? From running against corruption to scoring a goal for transparency, you can raise your community’s anti-corruption awareness through any sport you want. It’s time that the Integrity Initiative starts Integrity Runs again.

Politicians may be running for office—but they shouldn’t be able to hide. During the leadup to elections, candidates are in the spotlight and this is a good time to hold them accountable for their campaigning and election promises.

You can ask your local candidates to sign a pledge against corruption (for instance the Integrity Pledge mentioned under 9. above) and agree to take specific steps to stop corruption. They can, for example, pledge not to buy or sell votes during the election, a very common form of corruption. And young voters should definitely not sell their votes.

10. Crowd sourcing election monitoring

Tweet. Text. E-mail. From accessing your mobile phone to surfing the Web on your computer, it’s never been easier or quicker to monitor elections in real time. Through online crowdsourcing you can let the world know of voting irregularities in your country with just a few clicks. Some of the information can even be plotted onto an interactive map online, allowing you also to see what others in your community are reporting.

I hope you find these suggestions useful. If you want specific details on how to make any of these ideas a reality, I will be glad to assist you with advice. If you have more suggestions that are not already on this list, I would love to hear from you.

Let me conclude with a note of caution. There is risk in exposing people involved in corruption. Work in a group rather than alone.

And remember: The youth deserve an end to corruption. Young people are not just our future.

They are key to creating a just, peaceful and prosperous world right now!

You can contact me at Schumacher@ eitsc.com.

Bong Go is top pick for senator in Davao

W

hile he has yet to decide on whether or not to enter politics, Special Assistant to, the President (SAP) Secretary Christopher Lawrence “Bong” T. Go thanked over the weekend his fellow Davaoeños for placing him on the top spot in a survey for the mid-term elections next year.

This, after the University of Mindanao’s Institute of Popular Opinion (UM-IPO) released the results of a survey showing that 76 percent of Davao City residents would vote for Go for senator. On Friday Go took his oath as member of the regional political party Hugpong ng Pagbabago led by Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio.

“Malayo pa [ang 2019], pero thank you sa mga Davaoeño sa pagtitiwala ninyo sa amin, sa akin. Mas nakakataba ng puso.

Lalo po kami magsisikap sa aming trabaho [Though the 2019 election is still a long way off, I thank the Davaoeños for their trust in us, in me. It warms my heart. This inspires us to work harder],” Go said.

Asked about the possibility of him running for senator, Go responded: “50-50.” He reiterated that although he has no plans of running, only the President can change his mind.

Davao region, of which Davao City is part of, has a voting population of 4.9 million.

According to UM-IPO Assistant

Vice President for Research and Publication Center Dr. Ma. Linda Arquiza, aside from Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, “the candidates they [the Davaoeños] will vote for include SAP Bong Go, ranking first on the list, [with former PNP Director General] Ronald “Bato” [M.] dela Rosa ranking second.”

Ranked third to sixth are Sen. Grace Poe, Taguig Rep. Pia S. Cayetano, Sen. Juan Edgardo M. Angara and Sen. Aquilino L. Pimentel III. Ranked seventh to ninth are former Party-list Rep. Neri Colmenares, former Metropolitan Manila Development Authority Chairman Francis Tolentino and and Sen. Joseph Victor G. Ejercito.

Ranked 10th and 11th are Sen. Cynthia A. Villar, and Sen. Nancy Binay; 12th to 16th are former Sen. Lito Lapid, Sen. Paolo Benigno A. Aquino IV, former Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, Rep. Jose Christopher Y. Belmonte Sen. Francis N. Pangilinan and ranked 17th to 19th are former Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, former Sen. Mar Roxas and Presidential Spokesman Harry L. Roque Jr. Former Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr. was at 20th and Assistant Secretary Mocha Uson at 21st.

Go also thanked the UM-IPO for conducting the survey. The institute aims to strengthen the commitment on rights and empowerment to the people of Davao.

Maza QUITS as N.A.P.C. head

By Bernadette D. Nicolas @BNicolasBM

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ational Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) Lead Convener and Secretary Liza Maza announced on Monday her resignation from her Palace post, citing, among others, President Duterte’s decision to cancel the peace talks with communists as the last straw.

Maza, a for mer Gabr iela party-list representative, bared her decision to quit on the second day of reporting for work at NAPC after murder charges against her and three former lawmakers were dismissed by a Nueva Ecija trial court in Palayan City last week.

The junking of charges against Maza and the former lawmakers also led to the decision of the judge to void the arrest warrants issued against Maza, former Agrarian Secretary Rafael Mariano and former Bayan Muna Party-list Reps. Satur Ocampo and Teddy Casiño.

Although the charges were dismissed, Maza said during the press conference, the revival of the cases and the issuance of warrants of arrest did take its toll on her work at NAPC. “I would like to announce that I [have] submitted my letter of resignation to President Duterte this morning. I said and I thought about this during the time that we are being harassed, and until this weekend and I came to the conclusion that I cannot work under the circumstances,” she said in Filipino.

“Although I hailed the [dismissal of the] case as a triumph of truth and justice, but I know there is always that possibility of launching a greater attack against me,” Maza said.

But she stressed that the last straw was the President’s decision

to cancel the peace talks between the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, which she said the President announced on August 14. “ T his ended my hope that the peace talks will bear fruit to meaningful socioeconomic and political reforms that will end poverty and war in the country.

This is the sign that the antireform, anti-poverty and militaristic mindset and rules have prevailed in this administration,” she said in a separate statement.

Maza also revealed that the invitation for her to attend the Cabinet meetings stopped last September, which she said was because of status of peace talks.

She added: “ This is not a surrender of the pursuit of meaning f u l refor ms that we have embarked upon in my two years of leading the NAPC, and which has always been my life’s work as an activ ist and legislator, nor am I succumbing to the reactionar y forces who have long wanted me out of this post.

R ather, it has become clear to me that this pursuit w il l be better ser ved with me working outside of government.”

In her two year stint, Maza said NAPC was able to accomplished advocating for a progressive anti-poverty policy framework and working closely with basic sectors for more meaningful people’s participation in governance.

Presidential Spokesman Herry L. Roque Jr. expressed regret over Maza’s decision to resign and wished her the best.

“Likewise we thank Secretary Liza Maza for her invaluable services to the government for the past two years, even as we express our regret with her decision to leave in government,” Roque said, even as he disputed Maza’s claim that the peace talks were canceled.

A4 Tuesday, August 21, 2018 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

The World BusinessMirror

US firms to Trump: Don’t raise tariffs on more Chinese goods

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ASHINGTON—Fishermen off the Alaskan coast. A Florida maker of boat trailers. A building materials distributor in Tennessee.

Those and hundreds of other American businesses are delivering the same plea to President Donald J. Trump as he considers imposing tariffs on nearly 40 percent of imported Chinese goods: Don’t do it.

The Trump administration will hold six days of hearings starting on Monday in Washington on the next barrage in an escalating trade war between the world’s two largest economies: Trump’s proposed tariffs of 10 percent to 25 percent on $200 billion in Chinese goods that could kick in as early as next month.

Once in effect, the tariffs would immediately inflate the prices that American companies would have to pay for Chinese components they need to build their products. Those companies would have to decide whether to pass those costs on to their customers or absorb the higher prices themselves.

The first shots have already been fired: In July Trump slapped 25-percent tariffs on $34 billion in Chinese imports. Taxes on an additional $16 billion are set to kick in this week. China is counterpunching with tariffs of its own.

But the $200 billion in additional Chinese goods that the Trump administration is considering taxing

would mark a significant escalation in its trade fight with Beijing.

Washington and Beijing are clashing over US allegations that China uses predatory tactics to try to overtake American technological dominance: Those tactics, the administration argues, include cybertheft and pressure for US companies to hand over trade secrets in return for access to the Chinese market.

So far, the US tariffs have targeted imported Chinese industrial products—not the electronics, toys and food that ordinary Americans might buy at a mall or order online. But adding $200 billion to the target list would expose to hefty taxes many more of the $506 billion in goods that China shipped to the United States last year, including many consumer products. The list includes 6,031 Chinese imports—an eclectic compilation that ranges from buttons to burglar alarms to motorboats.

JO-ANN Stores, which sells fabric and crafting supplies, says it imports about 500 items on the tariff list, including fleece, yarn and cotton fabric. Ed Weinstein, JO-ANN’s vice president of tax and public affairs, said he doesn’t understand how supplies for knitters and

crafters became caught up in a trade dispute over high-tech policy.

“Our products are very simple,” Weinstein told The Associated Press.

“I would never have expected to see fabric and craft components on the tariff list.”

In their filings to the Trump administration, companies that import from China complain that the tariffs will force them to raise prices, pay higher costs, try to find alternative suppliers or lose business to foreign rivals that don’t have to pay a penalty on components and machinery they import from China.

“If you look at the filings, a lot of them are mom-and-pop businesses saying, ‘Please don’t do this to us,’” said Bryan Riley, director of the Free Trade Initiative at the conservative National Taxpayers Union.

Consider:

Seattle’s Groundfish Forum, a trade group for the operators of 19 fishing trawlers off Alaska. It warns that the tariffs will hit flatfish caught off the US coast that are sent to China for processing before being shipped back to the United States.

Trump’s proposed 10-percent tariff on those fish would leave the “sustainably harvested fish caught by US fishermen at a competitive disadvantage,” the group says in a filing with the administration’s Office of the US Trade Representative.

Magic Tilt Trailers, a company in Clearwater, Florida, that makes boat trailers. It says it has to buy Chinese tires and parts on Trump’s target list; there are few alternatives.

“The tariffs will have little to no impact on the sourcing options of

members in the trailer manufacturing community,” the company wrote.

“We will just be getting a 10-percent tax, payable to the general treasury.”

Building Plastics Inc., a Memphis-based building materials distributor. It buys 400- to 800-pound slabs of Chinese quartz and sells them to fabricators that turn them into countertops and other items for homes and offices. The company says it’s tried and failed to find alternative sources of the mineral.

“We did not want to go to China, but we were forced to go to China,” said Mike Perkowski, a product manager for the company.

Perkowski said the tariffs could prove “catastrophic.”

“There’s a possibility we could be priced out of the market,” he said in an interview. “We’re definitely going to have to pass along the tariffs.... We’ve been educating our customer base that tariffs are coming. There will definitely be a price increase.”

Can the US and China avoid a $200-billion tariff collision? Hopes rose last week on news that China will send an envoy to Washington this month to discuss a way out of the standoff.

But many trade analysts aren’t very optimistic. A solution would likely require China to widen its market to foreign companies, reduce subsidies to domestic industries and rethink industrial policies that are considered vital to helping Chinese companies become leaders in such advanced fields as electric cars and robotics and thereby strengthening China’s economy. AP

South Koreans enter North Mahathir seeks China’s help to solve Malaysia’s fiscal woes to reunite with kin split by war

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EIJING—Malaysia’s leader said on Monday that he hoped China would sympathize with his country’s fiscal problems as he met with the country’s leaders after suspending multibillion-dollar construction projects financed by Chinese loans.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said at a news briefing with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang that he was seeking support from China’s leaders over Malaysia’s situation as it deals with a mass of debt and other economic problems created under previous administrations.

“We hope also to get China to understand the problems we face... and I hope that China, and I believe that China will look sympathetically toward the problems that we have to resolve and perhaps help us to resolve some of our internal fiscal problems,” Mahathir said.

Mahathir is a vocal critic of largescale investment in his country backed by loans from Beijing and has tested Malaysia’s ties with China by suspending Chinese-financed infrastructure projects.

He’s expected to attempt to renegotiate the terms of those contracts during his meetings with Chinese officials, including President Xi Jinping.

Days before heading to Beijing, Mahathir said Malaysia wanted to cancel a Chinese-backed $20-billion East Coast Rail Link and two energy pipelines worth $2.3 billion.

Malaysia’s new government has called for drastic cuts to the projects’ ballooning cost, which it estimates at more than $22 billion. Some of that money has already been paid and could be difficult to recoup.

China has said the projects bring mutual benefits to the two sides, and any disputes should be dealt with by the commercial parties involved.

The projects are key components in Xi’s signature “Belt and Road” initiative to construct ports, railways and other trade-related infrastructure across Asia, mostly built by

Chinese contractors and financed by loans from Chinese state banks.

Belt and Road projects in Thailand, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and other countries have run into complaints that they are too costly, give too little work to local companies and possibly fuel corruption.

The cancellation of projects in Malaysia would create huge losses for the Chinese partners involved, said Jia Duqiang, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Science’s Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies.

“Mahathir is worried about Malaysia’s ability to proceed with the projects, but there are also political factors because the projects had been decided by the former government,” Jia said.

Despite that, Mahathir’s government appears open to further Chinese investment, such as in high-tech industries, e-commerce and vehicle production, Jia said.

Mahathir courted Chinese e-commerce investment in his country at the start of his visit on Saturday.

Making his first trip to China since his stunning electoral victory three months ago, Mahathir toured the campus of Chinese online shopping giant Alibaba Group in the eastern city of Hangzhou. There he met with the company’s founder, Jack Ma, and stressed his hopes for further collaboration.

He also visited Geely, one of China’s biggest independent automakers. The company owns 49.9 percent of Proton, a Malaysian automaker.

Along with their economic frictions, China and Malaysia are parties to the dispute over waters and islands in the South China Sea. Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said last week that Malaysia’s new government would adopt a firmer stand in tackling the decades-old territorial row amid China’s aggressive expansion in the area.

Mahathir has said warships should be removed from the South China Sea. AP

South Koreans leave for North Korea to take part in family reunions with their North Korean family members at the customs, immigration and quarantine office in Goseong, South Korea, on Monday. About 200 South Koreans and their family members prepared to cross into North Korea for heart-wrenching meetings with relatives most haven’t seen since they were separated by the turmoil of the Korean War. Korea Pool/Yonhap via AP

S

EOUL, South Korea—Dozens of elderly South Koreans crossed the heavily fortified border into North Korea on Monday for heart-wrenching meetings with relatives most haven’t seen since they were separated by the turmoil of the Korean War. The weeklong event at North Korea’s Diamond Mountain resort comes as the rival Koreas boost reconciliation efforts amid a diplomatic push to resolve a standoff over North Korea’s drive for a nuclear-weapons program that can reliably target the continental United States.

The temporary reunions are highly emotional because most participants are elderly people eager to see their loved ones once more before they die.

Most of their families were driven apart during the 1950-1953 Korean War, which ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty, leaving the Korean Peninsula still in a technical state of war.

Buses carrying about 90 elderly South Koreans and their family members were moving into the Diamond Mountain resort after crossing into North Korea. Earlier in the morning, the South Koreans, some in wheelchairs and aided by Red Cross workers, had left the buses

briefly to enter the South Korean immigration office in the eastern border town of Goseong.

They were to reunite with their long-lost North Korean relatives on Monday afternoon at the start of a three-day reunion. A separate round of reunions from Friday to Sunday will involve more than 300 other South Koreans, according to Seoul’s Unification Ministry.

Past reunions have produced powerful images of elderly Koreans crying, embracing and caressing each other. Nearly 20,000 people have participated in 20 rounds of face-toface reunions since 2000. Another 3,700 exchanged video messages with their North Korean relatives under a short-lived communication program from 2005 to 2007.

No one has had a second chance to see their relatives.

Many of the South Korean participants are war refugees born in North Korea who will be meeting their siblings or the infant children they left behind, many of them now into their 70s.

Park Hong-seo, an 88-year-old Korean War veteran from the southern city of Daegu, said he always wondered whether he’d faced his older brother in battle. AP

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Trump administration now less concerned about conserving oil

IN this December 19, 2014, file photo, oil pump jacks work in unison in Williston, North Dakota. Conserving oil is no longer an economic imperative for the United States, the Trump administration declares in a major new policy statement that threatens to undermine decades of government campaigns for gas-thrifty cars and other conservation programs. AP/Eric Gay

W

ASHINGTON —Conserving oil is no longer an economic imperative for the United States, the Trump administration declares in a major new policy statement that threatens to undermine decades of government campaigns for gas-thrifty cars and other conservation programs.

The position was outlined in a memo released last month in support of the administration’s proposal to relax fuel-mileage standards. The government released the memo online this month without fanfare.

Growth of natural gas and other alternatives to petroleum has reduced the need for imported oil, which “in turn affects the need of the nation to conserve energy,” the Energy Department said. It also cites the now decade-old fracking revolution that has unlocked US shale oil reserves, giving “the United States more flexibility than in the past to use our oil resources with less concern.”

With the memo, the administration is formally challenging old justifications for conservation—even congressionally prescribed ones, as with the mileage standards.

The memo made no mention of climate change. Transportation is the single largest source of climatechanging emissions.

President Donald J. Trump has questioned the existence of climate change, embraced the notion of “energy dominance” as a national goal, and called for easing what he calls burdensome regulation of oil, gas and coal, including repealing the Obama Clean Power Plan.

Despite the increased oil supplies, the administration continues to believe in the need to “use energy wisely,” the energy department said, without elaboration. Department spokesmen did not respond on Friday to questions about that statement.

Reaction was quick.

“It’s like saying, ‘I’m a big old fat guy, and food prices have dropped— it’s time to start eating again,’” said Tom Kloza, longtime oil analyst with the Maryland-based Oil Price Information Service.

“If you look at it from the other end, if you do believe that fossil fuels do some sort of damage to the atmosphere...you come up with a different viewpoint,” Kloza said. “There’s a downside to living large.”

Climate change is a “clear and present and increasing danger,” said Sean Donahue, a lawyer for the Environmental Defense Fund.

In a big way, the energy department statement just acknowledges the world’s vastly changed reality when it comes to oil.

Just 10 years ago, in summer 2008, oil prices were peaking at $147 a barrel and pummeling the global economy. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries was enjoying a massive transfer of wealth, from countries dependent on imported oil. Prices now are about $65.

Today, the US is vying with Russia for the title of top world oil producer.

US oil production hit an all-time high

this summer, aided by the technological leaps of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing.

How much the US economy is hooked up to the gas pump, and vice versa, plays into any number of policy considerations, not just economic or environmental ones, but military and geopolitical ones, said John Graham, a former official in the George W. Bush administration, now dean of the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University.

“Our ability to play that role as a leader in the world is stronger when we are the strongest producer of oil and gas,” Graham said. “But there are still reasons to want to reduce the amount we consume.”

Current administration proposals include one that would freeze mileage standards for cars and light trucks after 2020, instead of continuing to make them tougher.

The proposal eventually would increase US oil consumption by 500,000 barrels a day, the administration says. While Trump officials say the freeze would improve highway safety, documents released this month showed senior Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) staffers calculate the administration’s move would actually increase highway deaths.

“American businesses, consumers and our environment are all the losers under his plan,” said Sen. Tom Carper, a Delaware Democrat. “The only clear winner is the oil industry.

It’s not hard to see whose side President Trump is on.”

Administration support has been tepid to null on some other longrunning government programs for alternatives to gas-powered cars.

Bill Wehrum, assistant administration of the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation, spoke dismissively of electric cars—a young industry supported financially by the federal government and many states—this month in a call with reporters announcing the mileage freeze proposal.

“People just don’t want to buy them,” the EPA official said.

Oil and gas interests are campaigning for changes in government conservation efforts on mileage standards, biofuels and electric cars.

In June, for instance, the American Petroleum Institute and other industries wrote eight governors, promoting the dominance of the internal-combustion engine and questioning their states’ incentives to consumers for electric cars.

Surging US and gas production has brought on “energy security and abundance,” Frank Macchiarola, a group director of the American Petroleum Institute trade association, told reporters this week, in a telephone call dedicated to urging scrapping or overhauling of one US program for biofuels.

Fears of oil scarcity used to be a driver of US energy policy, Macchiarola said.

Thanks partly to increased production, “that pillar has really been rendered essentially moot,” he said. AP

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BusinessMirror

Tuesday, August 21, 2018

A5

A6 Tuesday, August 21, 2018 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

editorial

Rudest on the road

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ongestion is a major source of frustration for road users in Metro Manila and other urban centers, and the problem has only worsened over time.

Different solutions have been proposed, such as new investments and innovations in public transport and building more roads and bridges, but often the No. 1 problem involves the citizens behind the steering wheels.

Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) operations commander Bong Nebrija has been waging a government crusade against motorists parking illegally and causing all kinds of obstructions on Metro Manila’s roads and sidewalks. He has been trying his best to book offenders who seem very much intent on flouting the law.

Nebrija’s altercations with offenders are well-documented. He has a foreign video blogger who joins him on the agency’s operations to ensure transparency in enforcing the law and his videos are posted on Facebook and YouTube.

Nebrija, a former Navy colonel, has gotten into many verbal tiffs, particularly with policemen, military and other government personnel, including their relatives, proving yet again that the wang-wang culture that former President Benigno S. Aquino III used to campaign against is still very much thriving, that those who are supposed to enforce the law are the first ones to think they are exempted from it; that they are entitled to break it without consequences, or at least be accorded special treatment and favors the people they are supposed to serve as public servants do not get.

Last week Nebrija and several MMDA officers tried to serve a simple traffic ticket to a Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutor for an illegal parking violation, a violation with a penalty of P200. Instead of just handing over her license, the prosecutor kept arguing with MMDA traffic enforcers, refusing to surrender her license, causing quite a ruckus. She even allegedly tried to run over one of the traffic enforcers, damaging his motorcycle.

The prosecutor’s husband arrived on the scene, with bodyguard in tow, and caused more mayhem. He shouted obscenities at the authorities, threatened to file cases against all of them, supposedly for causing his pregnant wife so much stress, never mind that his wife started the disturbance to begin with.

He rushed his wife out of the scene in their van, which was not even number-coded to run on the road that day, with his bodyguard following in another vehicle, oblivious to the plea of the MMDA officers to wait for the police report regarding the motorcycle his wife had hit.

The incident was caught on video, with the footage getting millions of views online, prompting a public backlash so severe that the prosecutor and her husband issued a public apology days later, after the MMDA threatened to file charges against the couple and asked the Land Transportation Office to revoke the prosecutor’s driver’s license.

Days later, in another incident caught on video, two traffic enforcers in Makati City tried to stop a Mercedes-Benz running a red light when the occupants—a businessman and his bodyguards—got out and took turns hitting them until they were forced to back away.

What good would more roads be if road users are such a rule-breaking and arrogant lot as these? What good is a road if the motorists and others who use it have no discipline, if they don’t follow traffic rules and wantonly disregard them?

Infrastructure alone won’t solve our traffic problems. Easing congestion also entails strict enforcement of traffic rules and regulations and observing self-discipline on the part of drivers.

Driving and vehicle ownership come with certain responsibilities. We shouldn’t abuse the privilege of driving and owning vehicles. We have to change our road culture, otherwise new and better roads would have no use at all.

Since 2005

BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business

6% GDP growth is not bad at all Manny B. Villar

THE Entrepreneur Continued from A1

T

he inflation rate may have topped 5 percent in July but that is not so alarming considering that surging prices are being caused temporarily by the supply side, which can be remedied by imports, especially rice. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has responded by increasing its interest rates by 50 basis points to rein in the second-round effects of inflation after electricity and oil prices rose.

The economy, I believe, will remain buoyant in the last two quarters of 2018. Direct foreign investments, or those invested in capital equipment, will translate into increased production toward the end of the year. Finance Undersecretary Gil Beltran, the chief economist of the Department of Finance, was quoted as saying that a 30-percent to 40-percent increase in capital formation in the third and fourth quarters would put the economy on track.

Achieving the economic growth target of 7 percent to 8 percent this year may be difficult, but if the GDP does not expand within this range or settles just above 6 percent, it is still okay. Strong economic fundamentals are still there to support the growth trajectory.

The Philippines remains attractive to foreign investors. Net inflows of foreign direct investments in May, according to the data of the BSP, jumped 143 percent to $1.6 billion, from $677 million a year ago,

China’s other economic war

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reflecting investors’ confidence in the Philippine economy. Net equity capital investments increased over five times to $241 million, from $43 million during the same month last year. Equity capital placements amounted to $257 million, while withdrawals continued to be low at $15 million.

The equity capital placements came primarily from Singapore, the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States and Japan. Per BSP data, these were channeled largely to manufacturing; real estate; electricity, gas, steam and air-conditioning supply; financial and insurance; and professional, scientific and technical activities.

FDI net inflows, meanwhile, rose 49 percent to $4.8 billion in the first five months from $3.3 billion in the same period last year. The rising foreign direct investments in the country, partly attributed to the Duterte administration’s effective campaign against corruption and criminality, will soon translate into increased jobs and economic production.

Beltran saw a “silver lining” in the growth performance of the Philippines—capital formation. He said the country in the future quarters will perform better because once

T

his past weekend, Reuters published a fascinating analysis titled “Empty hotels, idle boats: What happens when a Pacific island upsets China”. It tells the story of the island nation of Palau and begins with the statement: “Empty hotel rooms, idle tour boats and shuttered travel agencies reveal widening fissures in the tiny Pacific nation of Palau, which is caught in an escalating diplomatic tug-of-war between China and Taiwan”.

It deserves a full read but the bottom line is that not only is China waging war to further its interests on all fronts but that the United States is an untrustworthy ally.

Palau is one of the few nations —18 to be exact—that do not hold with the “One China” policy and fully recognizes the Republic of China as a separate country. The People’s Republic of China does not appreciate that diplomatic stance.

While many countries—as the Philippines does – keeps relations with Taiwan through a backdoor like our Manila Economic and Cultural Office, Palau maintains full diplomatic relations.

Until last year, China accounted for one half of Palau’s tourist

business on which the nation depends for a substantial amount of its economy and foreign currency.

Last year Beijing effectively banned tour groups from traveling to Palau. This is not the first time that has happened. The same thing was done to South Korea in 2017 when it installed a controversial US missile defense system.

Of the 122,000 visitors in 2017, 55,000 were from China and 9,000 from Taiwan so the lack of Chinese visitors was a huge tourism blow for Palau. But that is not the full story.

Because of all the Chinese travelers, Chinese companies were investing large amounts in Palau’s tourism infrastructure, including hotels, support businesses and securing

The bottom line once again is that it is not just the Philippines that is economically caught between China and the US. And as many nations proved during the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union, playing both sides can be advantageous.

large holdings of prime coastal real estate. With the travel ban, those investments stopped many in midstride. Unfinished construction dots Koror, the main commercial center. “Chinese investors had secured 99-year leases for around 60 hotel projects prior to 2017, but construction has been largely put on hold.”

However, the economic pressure from the travel restrictions is only one piece of the Chinese economic influence in the pacific island region, which—after World War II— was the exclusive property of the US. The Pacific Island Forum is a group of nations—which reaches from Fiji and Tonga to Micronesia and Palau. China’s total goods trade with the member-countries reached $8.2 billion in 2017 versus $1.6 billion for the United States. Further, the US has been providing direct aid of $200 million a year to Micronesia,

the factories and the machines that were purchased in the second quarter become operational, growth will accelerate.

BSP Governor Nestor A. Espenilla Jr. is equally upbeat despite the slowdown in the GDP growth in the second quarter, saying the Philippine economy is resilient mainly because of its sound macroeconomic fundamentals.

“We’re growing strongly. [We have] strong growth drivers. Fiscal position is in order. The external position—despite the deficit—is moderate and our indebtedness is low. So we’re in a strong fundamental position,” Espenilla said at the sidelines of an event at the BSP last week.

The exchange rate, although weak, remains dynamic and attractive to our overseas Filipino workers. Total personal remittances in the first five months hit $13.172 billion, up 4.4 percent, from $12.613 billion in the same period last year. The gross international reserves, meanwhile, are still near the $80-billion level.

So let’s relax. The economy is still expanding and there’s no reason to be alarmed.

For comments, e-mail mbv.secretariat@gmail. com or visit www.mannyvillar.com.ph.

the Marshall Islands and Palau, but that is set to expire in 2023 and the US has indicated that it will not continue the aid. China is expected to fill that gap.

From Reuters: “China is making overtures,” said former Palau President Johnson Toribiong. “I like Taiwan. But even Taiwanese want China now. The businessmen, they also want China. They don’t care about political consequence. Think about the economics.”

However, not everyone is convinced mass tourism from China is the best economic path to travel. Palau President Tommy Remengesau Jr.—whose term ends in 2021—says that the country’s tourism industry has adjusted by attracting wealthier tourists. “The reality is that numbers did not mean big revenues for Palau. It actually made us more determined to seek the policy of quality versus quantity.”

The bottom line once again is that it is not just the Philippines that is economically caught between China and the US. And as many nations proved during the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union, playing both sides can be advantageous.

E-mail me at mangun@gmail.com. Visit my web site at www.mangunonmarkets.com. Follow me on Twitter @mangunonmarkets. PSE stockmarket information and technical analysis tools provided by the COL Financial Group Inc.

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

The Consultative Committee has done a creditable job Speech for Con-com closure by Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno (Ret.), chairman, Consultative Committee to Review the 1987 Constitution.

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ear colleagues: I am sure all of us will count and consider the days from February 19 when we started to draft a federal Constitution until July 9, when we submitted our draft to President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, as about the most significant in our lives.

I also like to think that we are all honored to have been chosen by the President to review the 1987 Constitution and suggest the necessary changes to effectuate our shift from a unitary to a federal form of government. The President has been a mayor for the greatest part of his life, and he knows like the palm of his hands the need to change our over centralized unitary government.

I am one who does not engage in the art of self-levitation, but I like to think that the Consultative Committee has done a creditable job in preparing the substance and shadow of the draft federal Constitution. The problems to overhaul the system were numerous. For one, the federalist idea is novel to the Filipinos, novel not only to the intellectually insular but even to our experts in constitutional law, especially the born again experts who have suddenly mushroomed all over the media. Until now, I know of no law school from any part of our nation that offers a comparative course on federalism. But despite all these mounds and mountains of difficulties, we were able to craft a draft Constitution that is distinctly Filipino, contextualized to address the peculiarities of our history, culture, ethos and ethnicity.

Our draft was not xeroxed from the Constitution of any common or civil law country, but is tailored to respond to the problems of a country composed of more than 100 million people, living in thousands of islands, speaking in hundreds of languages and dialects, professing irreconcilable religions, endowed with rich national resources, a strategic geophysical location, hence, a magnet to the greed and guile countries competing for world dominance. We were able to stitch together this notable draft federal Constitution because we came from intellectual discipline with contrasting perspectives—law, political science, business, military and government. In a period of five months, we finished our draft and elevated the cause of federalism to a higher height, and gave it a more meaningful dimension, which has never been done before.

To be sure, the draft we prepared is not perfect, not even fault-free, for none of us has a 20-20 vision that can dispense the mist of the present and penetrate the veil of the future.

But if there is anything to commend in our draft, it is the fact that it was prepared by people whose hearts palpitate with patriotism, who do not pander to the popular and whose minds cannot be shackled by those of the powers that be.

Crafting a draft federal Constitution is a burden, but the bigger burden is overcoming the opposition.

Our draft Constitution is a disruptive document, as it will unsettle the

status quo and disquiet those who cannot tolerate change, however molecular the change may be. The status quo is the over centration of powers in our national government, the status quo that has been cemented by the centuries of time, and now considered by some as inviolable as the ark of the covenant. As it was and as it is today, it will take more than quiet words to change this status quo protected and secured by political dynasties who will not yield their monopoly of political power and the economic elite that established a new monarchy, the monarchy of the moneyed, and will never give up their throne. Their factotums are everywhere—ensconced from within the government and encompassed by business interests organized as cartels and oligopolies, with evil eye against crusaders for change.

Summarizing, by our draft Constitution, we have midwifed the foetus of federalism in visible and viable constitutional form. Federalism has heretofore been at best an inchoate idea, but it has been given birth, its seeds have been planted, and it is our task to scatter its seeds to the hearts and minds of our people.

This shall be the focus of the second stage of our efforts as members of the Consultative Committee—to scatter the seeds of federalism to our people, because in truth, federalism is for the benefit of our people. It is our job to end the suspension of the belief on federalism whose end all and be all is the people’s welfare.

More specifically, we should tell the people that federalism will end the culture of undue dependence on the central government.

Their compelled mendicancy from distant government officials who are unaware of their problems, hence, unable to provide their solutions. In other words, federalism is the fight for the freedom of our people, a fight for the sovereignty of our people.

As I stressed in my message when we first convened as a Consultative Committee, all fights for freedom are not picnics in the park, for freedom is not given to the have it not, but have to be taken from the have it and have it all, and often not by mere war of words.

I remember the story of Giuseppe Garibaldi, the great Italian leader of the 19th century who in a fiery speech urged the youth to fight for the freedom of their homeland.

After his speech, a young fellow asked him: “If I fight, Sir, what will be my reward?” Garibaldi answered: “Wounds, scars, bruises and perhaps death, but remember that, through your bruises, your countrymen will be free!”

Federalism is freedom for our poverty-stricken countrymen, in our different regions, real freedom to direct their political and economic destiny and save them from a future of futility. History tells us that the fight for freedom is never swift, for it can be slowed down, it can be derailed, but we are also assured by the Word of God that the fight for freedom of man cannot be lost, for the Good Lord did not create man to enslave his fellow man. Let us not be weary in this fight.

For in God’s perfect time, victory will be with us. A pleasant day to all!

PHL communist insurgency, ‘the most brutal in the world’ Cecilio T. Arillo

database Part One

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N the words of journalist Ross Munro, a well-known political observer of Southeast Asian politics and author of the revealing story on the rise and fall of Cambodia’s brutal Khmer Rouge, “The Philippines is saddled with a communist insurgency that is the fastest-growing, most threatening and…the most brutal in the world today.”

Jose Maria Sison and Bernabe Buscayno, chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines and chief of the New People’s Army (NPA), respectively, together with some 450 others belonging to the second and third echelons of the CPP leadership were captured and jailed during the administration of President Ferdinand E. Marcos between 1972 and 1985.

They were released, together with their social democrat allies, by wealthy housewife Corazon Cojuangco Aquino in 1986 in compliance with her campaign promise when she assumed presidential power. Her tactical alliance with the left was confirmed by her Press Secretary Teodoro Benigno in a press statement: “During 1986 campaign the Aquino party entered into an agreement with the left for the purpose of defeating Marcos in the polls.”

Political analysts were unanimous in their conclusion: “The rise of the communist insurgency in the Philippines was primarily brought about by the strong ties the Aquino

administration has forged with the CPP and the implementation of a failed cease-fire agreement, which gave the insurgents the breathing room to regroup.”

Ms. Elizabeth Barnes, writing for the Detroit News, said in her article “20,000 Filipinos Suffer in Aquino Family Farm” that: “There are very strong evidence indicating that both the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army were organized in Hacienda Luisita.”

An intelligence report, which was part of the voluminous evidence used on the rebellion and sedition case filed against Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr., showed that the CPP and the NPA were organized in Hacienda Luisita on December 26, 1968, and March 29, 1969, respectively; and it was determined that Benigno Aquino Jr. was spearheading the formation of the CPP/NPA, hoping to use it in the 1972 presidential election. Apparently the late Benigno Aquino Jr. forgot the very instructive Chinese proverb: “He who rides the tiger ends up in the belly of the tiger.”

Bloomberg Opinion

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lobal warming is getting a little scary, as its consequences emerge more quickly than most scientists had expected, in soaring global temperatures, unprecedented wildfires and many other effects. This year is on target to be the fourth-hottest ever, only just behind the three previous years.

Meanwhile, humanity has made very little progress in taking action, with carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions higher now than ever before, having actually increased 60 percent over the past 25 years—all while we’ve been fully aware of

the problem. But hope for a simple fix— such as a carbon tax, the preferred option of most economists—is naive, even setting aside the formidable political challenges. Among other things, a new study suggests, a meaningful carbon tax could trigger food shortages by 2050 for many of the poorest people in the world, and even be worse than climate change continuing completely unabated.

In the research paper, published in Nature Climate Change, scientists compared estimates of how either climate change or a strong carbon tax would affect the global population at risk of hunger. The changing climate will directly hit agricultural productivity, while a carbon

This partnership was interpreted by some critics, “that the president [Mrs. Aquino] has made a Faustian bargain [a deal with the devil, best exemplified by the legend of Faust and the figure of Mephistopheles, but elemental to many Christian tradition, according to Wikipedia] with the communists: She has traded the soul of her government—democratic commitments—in exchange for its continued life.” Thus, the 1987 Philippine Constitution provided for the legalization of the CPP and the removal of American military facilities.

The CPP, with its military arm the NPA, “has an effective influence in 62 percent of the countryside,” according to then-Gen. Fidel V. Ramos and Richard Armitage, secretary of defense of the Philippines and the United States of America, respectively. On the other hand, Gen. Richard Stillwell, former US undersecretary of defense and retired commanding general of the United States forces in South Korea, boldly said: “The Philippine Communist is the only force…that has its act together. It is highly motivated, and tightly disciplined.”

The J-3 (Operations) Report

This military intelligence report, which was leaked to the press, revealed that the Philippine military is losing its war with the insurgents.

The J-3 report, a highly classified counterinsurgency operations report to the chief of staff, Gen. Renato de Villa, stated: “The Armed Forces of the Philippines lost all major battles but one and won only minor ones with the New People’s Army in the first quarter of 1988.”

A report prepared by the US Congressional Research Service, entitled “Philippines Under Aquino [Updated

Nixon, Clinton and Trump

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By Charles M. Blow | New York Times News Service

wenty years ago last Friday, President Bill Clinton testified before independent counsel Kenneth Starr and a grand jury about his sexual relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

That night, Clinton addressed the nation, in which he confessed: “I did have a relationship with Miss Lewinsky that was not appropriate. In fact, it was wrong. It constituted a critical lapse in judgment and a personal failure on my part for which I am solely and completely responsible. But I told the grand jury today and I say to you now that at no time did I ask anyone to lie, to hide or destroy evidence, or to take any other unlawful action.

I know that my public comments and my silence about this matter gave a false impression. I misled people, including even my wife. I deeply regret that.”

It was a clear admission, even if offered under duress and after the option to lie had vanished, and even if still splitting some hairs.

Months earlier, Clinton had bluntly said, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time. Never. These allegations are false, and I need to go back to work for the American people.”

Days after Clinton made his

admission, Donald J. Trump gave an interview to Chris Matthews in which he said of Clinton: “I think his little speech after was a disaster. It wasn’t the right tone, and I’m not sure he should have done it. And, I’m not even sure that he shouldn’t have just gone in and taken the Fifth Amendment, and said: “Look, I don’t get along with this man, Starr. He’s after me. He’s a Republican.” He’s this, he’s that, and you know, just taken the Fifth Amendment. It’s a terrible thing for a president to take the Fifth Amendment, but he probably should have done it.”

Trump made clear then his approach to dealing with these sorts of problems: Admit nothing, confess nothing, deny everything and attack the person pursuing you.

For me, it is clear that there was at least an attempt by members of the Trump team to conspire with Russians to influence the elections. The evidence of that is now public record. And, it is just as clear that Trump has attempted to obstruct justice by hampering

Climate change’s policy fix has a short-term cost

By Mark Buchanan

Tuesday, August 21, 2018 A7

tax would raise energy prices, a key agricultural input. The study found that a stringent carbon tax would be likely by 2050 to have a greater negative impact on hunger than climate change, with problems worst in vulnerable regions such as sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Of course, these are only estimates, and there’s plenty of uncertainty in this analysis. It rests on assumptions, for example, about how rising temperatures and other climate effects will influence food productivity, something we know little about. Indeed, other recent research concludes that rising temperatures could reduce GDP even in developed nations by as much as one-third by 2100.

Uncertainties aside, the researchers’ best guess is that, on the matter of food security, climate change would be bad, but a carbon tax big enough to reduce emissions significantly could actually be worse. That’s bad news.

Does this mean we shouldn’t address climate change? Hardly. It actually only points out why we’re going to have to be creative in finding ways to deal with the negative short-term consequences of the policies that will deliver long-term benefits. In addition to emissions reductions, we’re going to need wise agricultural policies, stronger social safety nets and better international cooperation.

Policies designed to avoid climate

October 26, 1987],” also pointed out that “the [Aquino] government has had less success in the countryside.

Few NPA rank-and-file members have surrendered. The NPA, in fact, grew by an estimated 9 percent in 1986, and the number of infiltrated barangays continued upward.”

A number of conditions persist in the countryside that created opportunities for the communists.

These included high levels of unemployment and poverty; the breakdown of traditional social and support institutions; weak local governments; ineffective local police and security forces; a military hampered by inadequate resources and training; and the absence of cooperation at the local level among the civilian governments, the military and civic leaders.

Comparatively, during the administration of President Marcos, despite a cut of almost 20 percent on the defense budget from 1982 onward, the counterinsurgency situation was described by a senior military officer of the Armed Forces of the Philippines as follows: “Reduction on the defense budget did not lead to the reduction of anti-insurgency activities of the armed forces. We successfully contained the CPP/NPA activities not only through purely military and combat operations but also by maintaining a high and effective level of cooperation among civilian and civic leaders through the organization of Peace and Oder Coordinating Councils at the regional, provincial, municipal and village or barangay levels.”

To be continued To reach the writer, e-mail cecilio.arillo@ gmail.com.

the investigation and continues to do so.

Whether the special counsel, Robert Mueller, will deem those actions to meet the legal threshold of criminality is another story.

But, it seems to me that Trump is growing increasingly agitated over the very real possibility that more members of his campaign and possibly his family are open to liability and that he himself may be vulnerable to eventual impeachment.

As such, he is mirroring the actions of President Richard Nixon, who resigned before he could be impeached.

Almost 25 years to the day before Clinton addressed the nation with his confession, Nixon addressed the nation with a denial.

Nixon said: “I said on May 22 that I had no prior knowledge of the Watergate operation. In all the testimony, there is not the slightest evidence to the contrary. Not a single witness has testified that I had any knowledge of the planning for the Watergate break‐in.

It is also true, as I said on May 22, that I took no part in, and was not aware of, any subsequent efforts to cover up the illegal acts associated with the Watergate break‐in.”

We now know, of course, that that was a lie.

But a full reading of Nixon’s statements sound mild compared to the

viciousness with which Trump is attacking the investigation looking into illegality, the press reporting on it and those providing information for it.

Even in Nixon’s false statement, one reads at least a rhetorical respect for American institutions and history, even if that respect did not exist in fact or in full.

Trump has none of that.

I believe he has absolutely no plans to personally cooperate with the investigation by sitting for an interview. He may have once believed that he could bluff his way through such an experience, but now his hostility and fear about the inquiry’s conclusion has clipped his courage.

And, I don’t believe Trump is going to confess as Clinton did, or resign as Nixon did, regardless of what Mueller finds, whom he prosecutes or what he says in a report.

Trump lies about almost everything, but one thing that he says is true: He is a fighter. But he’s not a fighter because he is fearsome or brave. Valor has no relationship to the man. Trump fights for vanity.

One of Trump’s greatest fears and greatest insecurities is being embarrassed and being exposed. Trump is petrified that someone will remove the mask he has been crafting for seven decades, or of having it be revealed that that mask is made of paper rather than steel.

disaster a century into the future and beyond might be expected to have some negative consequences over times as short as 30 years. By analogy, fire extinguishers have negative short-term consequences for the interiors of houses, but we generally think that using them is a good idea, because we can do other things to deal with those consequences and avoid having to rebuild the whole house.

Likewise, if governments implement a carbon tax—or take other serious actions on climate—they can also take further steps to handle adverse consequences stirred up as a result. Revenue from the tax could be used for food aid, for example, or to transfer more efficient

production methods to food-insecure regions, which might also further reduce CO2 emissions. The real message of the paper is that a useful carbon tax could cause serious problems, if put in place in the absence of any other policies to make agriculture more resilient or to come to the aid of those most at risk.

In this sense, the paper makes a useful if somewhat mundane point—that longterm climate policy will stir up shortterm issues, like food security. It offers valuable information on where we ought to be thinking about what other policies we might put in place to counteract these problems, and so ensure a path forward not just for some, but for everyone.

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A8 Tuesday, August 21, 2018

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Unsafe workplace: Employers face sanctions

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By Samuel P. Medenilla

@sam_medenilla

MPLOYERS with unsafe workplaces will soon face stiff penalties after President Duterte’s much-awaited signing of Republic Act (RA) 11058, also known as the Occupational Safety and Health Standards (OSHS) Law, last week.

A document obtained by BusinessMirror showed Duterte approved RA 11508 on August, 17, 2018.

Under the legislation, employers with “willful failure or refusal” to comply with OSHS, or with the compliance order from the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), will be fined a maximum of P100,000 per day until they cor-

rect the said deficiencies.

“The amount of fine imposed shall depend on the frequency or gravity of the violation committed or the damage caused,” the law states. “Provided, however, that the maximum amount shall be imposed only when the violation exposes the workers to a risk of death, serious injury, or serious illness,” it added.

The penalty will apply to both principal and service contractors.

The DOLE will conduct consultations to determine “the list of offenses with corresponding reasonable administrative fines.”

Among the factors that will be used by the DOLE to determine the amount of the penalty are the severity, frequency and damage caused by the violations. The amount collected will be used for government OSHS initiatives, including training and education.

Meanwhile, the new legislation will replicate the provision of the DOLE’s previous issuance granting incentives to employers compliant with OSHS and general labor standards, such as training packages, additional protective equipment, technical guidance and recognition.

RA 11508 will take 15 days effect after its publication in the Official Gazette or in a newspaper of general circulation.

The DOLE earlier said it expects passage of the law to greatly re-

duce incidents of workplace deaths caused by OSHS violations.

The same sentiment is shared by labor groups, who are looking at the new legislation to serve as a deterrent for employers from allowing unsafe workplaces.

1 in 10 workplaces violators

As of last year, the DOLE’s Bureau of Working Condition (BWC) showed about 1 out of every 10 of its inspected 60,732 establishments have OSHS violations.

The top five OSHS deficiencies are lack of health personnel (first aider); registration of establishments; administrative reports on health and safety; safety personnel; and fire protection and equipment/ facilities.

Last year two separate fire incidents—the one in Cavite-based House Technologies Industries Inc. and the NCCC Mall in Davao— killed dozens of people.

Authorities later found out the employers in both incidents violated OSHS.

Caguioa stays as justice-in-charge of Marcos-Robredo case

By Joel R. San Juan @jrsanjuan1573

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SSOCIATE Justice Benjamin Caguioa will remain as the justice-in-charge of the election protest filed by Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. against Vice President Maria Leonor G. Robredo in connection with the alleged fraud in the vice-presidential elections in 2016.

In a statement, SC Spokesman and Public Information Office head Atty. Theodore Te disclosed that the Supreme Court sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal has denied Caguioa’s request to re-raffle the case

to another member of the PET. Caguioa, however, clarified that his request should not be taken as a move to recuse himself, since he still intends to participate in the deliberations and voting.

The SC-PIO issued the statement after news reports came out quoting Caguioa’s internal memo to the PET asking for a re-raffle of the case.

In his memo, Caguioa cited the circulation of fake news accusing him of delaying the proceedings and being biased against the Marcoses.

“Contrary to these reports, there has been no change in the management of PET Case No. 0005 as the request [to

re-assign the case] was denied unanimously,” the SC said.

The SC also indicated that possible sanctions may be initiated against Court officials or personnel responsible for leaking Caguioa’s internal memo.

“Reference has been made in the news to a document that is both internal and privileged and which could only have been obtained or accessed unofficially,” the SC pointed out.

“In the past, the Court has dealt severely with individuals and court personnel who have leaked privileged and confidential matters, as well as pending matters. We ask the media to be circumspect and discerning in re-

porting unofficial and pending matters that have yet to be acted upon as they may mislead the public,” it added.

Caguioa did not avail himself of his right under the SC rules to unload the case to Associate Justice Alexander Gesmundo, the most junior magistrate, and instead sought a re-raffle.

“This is, in my mind, for the best; any resolution on this sensitive issue would certainly give rise to another round of politicking—and it is ideal that this be resolved by the banc with me no longer being the member-in-charge.”

Earlier, Marcos filed a motion before the PET seeking the inhibition of Caguioa from his election protest.

Marcos cited among the grounds in seeking Caguioa’s inhibition what he claimed was a recently discovered proof that reinforces his allegation of bias by Caguioa against him.

Marcos was referring to Viber messages in the Viber chat group of Caguioa’s wife Pier Angela “Gel” that have been circulating online.

The series of Viber messages were part of a video, titled “The Conjugal Conspiracy,” posted in the Facebook account of former Baguio City Councilor Tony Boy Tabora on July 13, 2018, which has gone viral with 8,8000 shares and 312,000 views.

Marcos said the Viber messages reveal that “Mrs. Caguioa was still an ardent supporter of protestee Robredo and even actively campaign for the latter when she ran against protestant Marcos in the May 2016 elections,” the motion read.

Caguioa and former President Benigno Aquino III are longtime friends, having been classmates in grade school, high school and college at the Ateneo de Manila University.

Robredo ran under Aquino’s Liberal Party with former Sen. Manuel Roxas II as the standard bearer in the 2016 national and local elections.

Marcos also cited the PET’s several resolutions that he said tend to delay the resolution of his election protest and show bias in favor of Robredo, as well as the Pansol outing of several PET staff, which was attended by Roberdo’s party revisors. The ongoing recount covers three pilot provinces—Camarines Sur, Iloilo and Negros Oriental—covering a total of 5,418 clustered precincts.

Depending on the results of the recount, the PET will decide whether to proceed with the recount in a total of 132,446 precincts in 39,221 clustered precincts covering 27 provinces and cities identified in the protest of Marcos.

Marcos filed the protest on June 29, 2016, citing alleged massive cheating perpetrated by the Robredo camp in the May 2016 polls.

Robredo won the vice-presidential race with 14,418,817 votes, or 263,473 more than Marcos’s 14,155,344 votes.

Will it still be fun? Party ban, curfew mulled for Boracay when it reopens

By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

@akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror

I

T’S more fun in the Philippines, according to the Department of Tourism (DOT). But will it still be fun in Boracay when it reopens?

In an interview with the BusinessMirror, DOT Secretary Bernadette Fatima Romulo Puyat said the interagency Task Force Boracay will meet on Wednesday to discuss the guidelines for reopening Boracay, dubbed by many travel publications as one of the best beaches in the world. Among the proposed guidelines include imposing a curfew and prohibiting the annual Laboracay parties.

“We [will] still discuss it when the task force meets,” she said of the proposed curfew, but was definite about ruling out any more Laboracay parties, which usually takes place over a period of five days over the May 1, Labor Day holiday.

She explained that the curfew would help keep the beach free of people and maintain its cleanliness.

“It’s like in Davao, they have a curfew,” she said. “Maybe the bars can close at a certain time,” she added. Prior to Boracay’s closure, restaurants and bars in Boracay usually shut down at 10 pm, and clubs, at 4 a.m.

The DOT chief was firm on prohibiting Laboracay. “Boracay should no longer be a party place,” she believed, adding that Laboracay parties had degenerated into events that attracted drugs and environmental violations, as participants ended up leaving their empty liquor bottles, spent cigarettes and other waste materials on the beach, or pee in the waters.

Data from the DOT showed the Laboracay holiday from April 25 to May 1 last year attracted over 70,000 tourists to Boracay, up 28 percent from the visitors in 2016. Of the total visitors last year, some 52,000 were Filipinos, while the rest were foreigners. Laboracay events and parties are scattered in key resorts and clubs, and usually sponsored by major companies, such as beer manufacturers, mobile-phone services providers, beverage and liquor firms, and the like.

Also to be discussed at Wednesday’s meeting is the carrying capacity study that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources commissioned for Boracay, which last year attracted some 2 million visitor arrivals. Maj. Gen. Mario Chan (Ret.), head executive assistant of DENR Secretary Roy A. Cimatu, explained that once the carrying capacity is determined, “that will be our limit.

Perhaps you won’t be able build other structures and you have to remove other structures. This will be the limit, including structures.”He stressed that

Boracay Island is mainly a “limestone structure, not a solid rock.”

The carrying capacity would help determine how many people should be admitted into Boracay at any given time. Romulo Puyat admitted that this is a complicated issue and will have to be threshed out by the task force.“I want to know how the other countries do it. We can limit the number of people, but how? Also, will we have to close Boracay two months a year [to help it recover]?” she wondered.

For his part, Cimatu, who met with the DOT chief last Friday, said the biggest challenge to the government’s rehabilitation effort has been the weather. “It’s been raining.

The weather has been unpredictable… [it has affected] the laying of the pipes,” he said. “The road paving is very easy, you can just cover it [with cement], but the sewage and drainage pipes on the side [of the road] are being laid out simultaneously. [The contractors] are trying their best to finish by October 26.”

August 25 deadline Meanwhile, stakeholders still have until August 25 to process their business permits, environmental clearance certificates (ECCs) and DOT accreditation at the one-stop shop in Boracay’s CitiMall. Cimatu extended the deadline for another week, upon the request of the stakeholders who made the appeal through Romulo Puyat during their meeting last August 15. He was firm, however, on not giving any more extensions, “so they [stakeholders] can speed up their compliance. They should have done that before, but you know us Filipinos, we’re fond of doing things at the last minute.”

Cimatu also said he would be beefing up the personnel in the DENR regional office in Iloilo to help fast-track the processing of ECCs of Boracay stakeholders. “I will add six more personnel,”he said, raising the number of ECC processors to 12. Resort owners told the BusinessMirror the DENR Iloilo staff informed them of their inadequate manpower, “although, to be fair, they had been instructed to prioritize Boracay.”

Cimatu added the DENR will be creating a group to be stationed on Boracay tasked to monitor the sewage treatment plants (STPs) that are expected to multiply on the island, following his “no STP, no reopening” order. In his Memorandum Circular No. 2018-06 dated June 26, 2018, Cimatu said resorts with “50 rooms and above to have [their] own STP, those with 49 rooms and below to have a clustered STP or they may opt/ elect to have [their] own separate treatment, and those hotels, resorts and similar establishments in other areas of Boracay with 50 rooms and above to have a separate STP.”

Borrowings in June push 6-month total to ₧460.86B Continued from A1

Bulk of the borrowings from domestic lenders for June this year came in the form of Retail Treasury Bonds (RTBs) amounting to P121.765 billion, Treasury bills accounted for P21.091 billion, and fixed rate Treasury bonds, P11.732 billion.

Project loans of P5.394 billion accounted for all external gross borrowings made by the government for the same month.

E a rl ie r, t he D e ve lo pme nt

Budget Coordination Committee modified its financing mix from a 65:35 ratio this year, 65 percent coming from the domestic market and 35 percent from foreign financial institutions, to a 75:25 ratio still in favor of local borrowings in 2019.

Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III explained that the modified financing mix will help ensure efficient borrowing and will shield the country from external shocks like foreign-exchange risks.